Our friends at Old Spice decided that the best way for us to experience Desperado, the latest scent within the Old Spice Red Zone Collection, would be to fully immerse us in the cowboy lifestyle at a dude ranch in Colorado!

Pretty crazy, right? Especially for a city slicker like myself who has never ridden horses, gone trap shooting, thrown a hatchet or done any of the other manly activities that they had in store for us. But life is all about new adventures (YOLO!), so I packed my bags and headed out West.

Our home for the week was the C Lazy U Ranch, an authentic dude ranch located about two hours outside of Denver that has been serving guests since 1919. Pulling up to the ranch, I was blown away by the endless green meadows, blue skies and the crisp Colorado air. This was going to be a memorable experience!

After getting settled in our rooms (and washing off the grime after traveling all day with a full assortment of Desperado products), we met up for the #SmellEm Hat Swap, where each of us got to pick out a cowboy hat of our very own. Once we were properly cowboy’d up, we headed off to dinner, followed by a trick rope performance from the legendary “Desperado Kid,” which was incredibly cool. We even got to try roping for ourselves, which is way harder than it looks.

The next morning, I woke up bright and early so I could watch the morning Jingle Run, where the C Lazy U Ranch horse wranglers bring the 200 horses back in from pasture. It’s a pretty amazing sight to see, and you can get a taste of it in this video I shot. The sound of 200 majestic horses making their way into the ranch is like nothing you’ve heard before; it’s pretty surreal.

Later that day, we met up at the hay barn for a #SmellEm behind-the-scenes session, where we got to learn more about the Old Spice Red Zone Collection, which “transforms men into legends of confidence.” We learned that scent plays a significant role in how guys view themselves and how others perceive them, and the new “Smell ‘Em Who’s Boss” campaign brings this reality to life in an entertaining way.

In fact, according to a recent survey, 92% of millennial guys think people treat them better when they smell good. And over 50% of guys feel that it would be more embarrassing to be told they smell bad on a date than to be locked out of their house naked. Strange but true!

The Perfect Ending spot you see above features Alberto Cardenas, the new Old Spice guy for the Desperado campaign. We got to spend the week with him, and the dude is ridiculously good looking, has an effortless confidence about him and is a genuinely good guy. He’s the absolute personification of the Desperado lifestyle, and I have a feeling his commercials are going to help sell a lot of Old Spice.

In the afternoon, our group went out for a #SmellEm Desperado Group Horse Ride, which was another first for me. Naturally, Alberto made it look easy, hopping right onto his horse and looking like something out of a Western movie. I was clutching onto my reins for dear life, as I ended up with a crazy horse who wanted to do her own thing rather than follow the group. Thankfully, I lived to tell the tale, but that’s probably the first and last time I’ll ever ride a horse.

During our time at the ranch, we also went trap shooting (I was a natural), hatchet throwing, archery (where I got to embrace my inner Katniss) and fly fishing. We also took a trip to the Rocky Mountain National Park, which offered some truly incredible sights. If you haven’t been out there before, it’s definitely worth the trip!

Overall, my first foray into the cowboy life was pretty awesome, and we can’t thank Old Spice enough for bringing us out to their #SmellEm Dude Ranch Retreat. It was pretty exciting to push myself out of my comfort zone and try something completely new.

While I don’t think I’ll be trading in my sneakers for a set of cowboy boots anytime soon, it was really interesting to see what ranch life is like, and I highly recommend the experience to anyone looking to shake things up a bit!